Apparatus for warning pedestrians of oncoming vehicle

• US 8,854,229 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2012
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group)
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group)
• Inventors: Kim, Gi Hwan, Moon, You Sung
• Primary Examiner(s): MCNALLY, KERRI L
• Application Number:
  US13/530,509
• Publication Number:
  US 20130154852A1
• Time in Patent Office: 837 Days
• Field of Search: 340/904
• US Class Current: 340/904
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 5/006 indicating risk of collision between vehicles or with pedestrians
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 5/008 for signaling silent vehicles, e.g. for warning that a hybrid or electric vehicle is approaching
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/20 Processing of the output signals of the acoustic transducers of an array for obtaining a desired directivity characteristic H04R2203/12 takes precedence

Abstract

Disclosed is a system for warning a pedestrian of an oncoming vehicle. In particular, a sensor senses the position of a pedestrian in the vicinity of a vehicle. The position information is then sent to a control unit which controls a phase, a frequency, and a volume of a sound signal transmitted to a pair of dipole speakers based on positional information of the pedestrian calculated by the control unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus for warning a pedestrian of a vehicle, comprising:

a sensor configured to sense a position of a pedestrian in a vicinity of the vehicle;

a pair of dipole speakers installed to be spaced apart within an engine compartment of a vehicle at a predetermined distance from each other; and

a control unit configured to transmit a warning sound signal to the pair of dipole speakers and control a phase, a frequency, and a volume of a sound signal transmitted to each of the pair of dipole speakers based on positional information of the pedestrian calculated by the control unit.

2. The apparatus claim 1, wherein the sensor measures a distance and an angle between the pedestrian and the vehicle.

3. The apparatus for warning a pedestrian of a vehicle of claim 2, wherein the control unit controls the phase, the frequency, and the volume of the warning sound signal transmitted to each speaker based on the distance and the angle between the pedestrian and the vehicle.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a vehicle speed sensor configured to sense a speed of the vehicle,

wherein the control unit is further configured to estimate and calculate the position of the pedestrian based on the speed of the vehicle when the pedestrian was sensed by the sensor and controls the phase, the frequency, and the volume of the warning sound signal transmitted to each speaker based on the calculated positional information.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the volume of the warning sound signal transmitted to each speaker depending on a distance and an angle between the pedestrian and the vehicle calculated by the control unit.

6. An apparatus for warning a pedestrian of a vehicle, comprising:

a sensor configured to sense the position of a pedestrian in a vicinity of a vehicle;

a pair of dipole speakers installed to be spaced apart within the vehicle at a predetermined distance from each other, of which orientation angles are controlled dynamically; and

a control unit configured to transmit a warning sound signal to the dipole speakers, control a phase, a frequency, and a volume of the warning sound signal transmitted to each speaker based positional information of the pedestrian calculated by the control unit and control dynamically an orientation angle of each dipole speaker based upon the pedestrian positional information.

7. The apparatus for warning a pedestrian for a vehicle of claim 6, wherein the control unit controls the volume of the sound signal transmitted to each speaker based on a distance and an angle between the pedestrian and the vehicle calculated by the control unit or the orientation angle of each speaker, respectively.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing program instructions executed by a processor or controller, the computer readable medium comprising:

program instructions that dynamically control a phase, a frequency, and a volume of a warning sound signal transmitted to a pair of dipole speakers based a distance and an angle between the pedestrian and the vehicle calculated by the control unit;

program instructions that dynamically control an orientation angle of each dipole speaker based upon the distance and angle between the pedestrian and the vehicle; and

program instructions that transmit the warning sound signal to the pair of dipole speakers based upon the distance and angle between the pedestrian and the vehicle.